RACHEL Reeves reportedly had an altercation with the Speaker before Prime Minister’s Questions, leading her to cry in the chamber.
The Treasury has said the Chancellor was dealing with a “personal matter” on which a department spokesperson would offer no further detail.
But it is now claimed that Reeves had been given a telling off by Speaker Lindsay Hoyle over her conducted the day before.
During Treasury questions on Tuesday, the Speaker interrupted one of the Chancellor’s answers to tell her to give shorter responses, to which Reeves said: “Ugh, alright, okay.”
Observers in the chamber said she had also rolled her eyes.
He pulled her up on this before Prime Minister’s Questions, The Times reports, and Reeves denied answering back.
The paper added that Reeves (above) said to have already been in a “difficult place” over the “personal matter” and began to cry.
Bond markets were sent into disarray as scenes of the Chancellor crying in the Commons were shared widely.
Government bonds were sold and yields, which affect the cost of government borrowing, rose above 4.6%.
Reeves's display, which came as the Prime Minister failed to rule out sacking her, forced No 10 to insist after PMQs that Keir Starmer retained confidence in the Chancellor.
The Prime Minister's press secretary said: "The Chancellor is going nowhere. She has the Prime Minister’s full backing."
A spokesperson for the Speaker’s office declined to comment.
